Harris set to tout teacher pay raise plan in Michigan

Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris will make two additional stops in Southeast Michigan on Monday following a Sunday night civil rights dinner in Detroit, her campaign announced Wednesday.

The U.S. senator from California will visit a Dearborn public school Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. and then speak at an American Federation of Teachers union member town hall at Marcus Garvey Academy in Detroit at 4:30 p.m.

The two-day swing will be Harris’ first campaign visit to Michigan, which Republican President Donald Trump and several Democratic candidates have marked as an early target.

Calling Michigan an “important battleground state,” Harris’ campaign said she will “lay out her vision to restore truth and justice in America, and lay out her plan to give the average teacher a $13,500 raise by the end of her first term.”

Harris’ ambitious and expensive teacher pay plan, unveiled in late March, would cost an estimated $315 billion over 10 years. Her campaign claims it would be paid for by making changes to the federal estate tax and closing unspecified tax loopholes.

Monday is the first day of Teacher Appreciation Week, her campaign noted. Harris will be joined at Monday events by national AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFT Michigan President David Hecker.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang is also expected back in Michigan this weekend for a Saturday campaign stop in Detroit, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is scheduled to be in Detroit on May 18.

Trump held a massive re-election campaign rally in Grand Rapids in late March, signaling his intent to defend a state he turned red for the first time since 1988.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who won Michigan’s Democratic primary in 2016, made April campaign stops in West Michigan and Macomb County.

Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York held events in Metro Detroit in March.